The Voice (Bible translation)
The Voice is an English translation of the Bible developed by Thomas Nelson (a subsidiary of News Corp) and the Ecclesia Bible Society. The Voice is a modern language, dynamic equivalent translation. The New Testament was released in November 2011, and the full Bible was released in April 2012.
| The Voice | |
|---|---|
| Full name | The Voice™ |
| OT published | April 2012 |
| NT published | November 2011 |
| Complete Bible published | April 2012 |
| Translation type | dynamic equivalent |
| Reading level | Middle school |
| Publisher | Thomas Nelson |
| Copyright | 2008, 2011 The Voice, Thomas Nelson |
In the beginning, God created everything: the heavens above and the earth below. Here’s what happened: 2 At first the earth lacked shape and was totally empty, and a dark fog draped over the deep while God’s spirit-wind hovered over the surface of the empty waters. Then there was the voice of God. God: 3 Let there be light. And light flashed into being.
For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life. | |
Translation team
The team developing The Voice numbered more than 120 scholars, authors and artists. The team included Greek and Hebrew scholars, Biblical scholars, poets, authors, musicians and pastors.[1] An interesting feature of this translation was that the team made the unusual decision to render the Hebrew Tetragrammaton as The Eternal rather than a common title such as The LORD or a transliteration such as Yahweh or Jehovah (though such a translation rendering is not unique to The Voice; there are other Bible translations such as the Moffatt, New Translation of 1922 that have rendered the Tetragrammaton in this manner). Another distinction is rendering a title such as The Word (e.g., John, Chapter 1) as The Voice rather than as The Word which is used in most Bible translations or the less than common expression Logos as used in such translations as the Emphatic Diaglott (a Greek-English Interlinear, first published in 1864 by Benjamin Wilson) and the Moffatt, New Translation of 1922, or the use of the Anointed One (e.g. Matthew 1:1) instead of Christ.
Criticism
The Voice has been harshly received by some fundamentalist critics. For instance, Baptist pastor Randy White writes: "The Voice reads like a New Age book. The familiar 'I am the way, the truth, and the life' of John 14:6 is rendered, 'I am the path, the truth, and the energy of life.' This and hundreds of other verses simply ooze with New Age terminology."[2]
References
- "The Voice Team". Hear the Voice. Thomas Nelson. Retrieved 22 December 2014.
- White, Randy. "The Voice Bible Review". randywhiteministries.org. Retrieved 3 February 2020.